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England's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India in February led them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were compelled to conduct the last training session before their next match against New Zealand indoors. The purpose isn't always clear what role these two-team contests serve, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is no concern.

The Batter's New Role: From Opener to Lower Down

The cricketer says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the kind of line regularly trotted out even by players who have long since scaled the peak of their game, in his situation it is certainly accurate. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, primarily as an starting player, Banton now occupies a totally new role, batting at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the squad and informed me, ‘You’re going to bat in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Prior to returning in June, 87% of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, another 8% at third position and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at No 4. If the team plan to keep him in this new position he needs every possible opportunity to get used to it, and he has figured out one thing: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than starting the innings.”

Varied Performances in the Tour

Banton said that “sometimes where it comes off and it looks great and on other occasions where it fails”, and the first two games of the winter in the host nation have seen one of each. In the first, he faced a few deliveries and made nine runs before holing out to long-on; in the second, he faced a dozen balls, scored 29, and finished not out.

Reflections on Return and Growth

The current series has witnessed Banton return to the nation in which he first played for his country in November 2019. Since then, he drifted back out of the team, had a short comeback in recently and then passed a long period in the sidelines before coming back for the new captain's initial match as England captain. “During the journey, it was weird,” he said. “Time has passed when I made my debut. It feels like a lot has occurred in that time. I've discovered a lot about me. The period after I got dropped from England was a tough time for me. I had a couple of years stretch where I was working myself out.”

Backing from Team Management

Currently, he has been given a fresh challenge to tackle. Banton is grateful to have been given another chance, and also for Brendon McCullum’s skill to put him at ease while he figures out how best to seize the opportunity. “Baz came up to me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Head out and play your natural game.’ It's reassuring to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I realize it’s just a brief comment someone says, but it provides the support that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not the end of the world. It’s something so minor but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the approval from the manager and I can step up and perform.’”

Venue Change and Squad Decisions

Following the initial matches of the contest at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, the visitors finish the series on Thursday at the Auckland arena, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the straight boundary at 55m is among the most compact in the world. With changeable conditions and an unfamiliar venue they have abandoned their usual practice of revealing their team ahead of time while they work out if their preferred team here will be the same as the one that started the earlier fixtures.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

On Friday, they move to Mount Maunganui and turn focus to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed squad: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Three of those players landed in Auckland on Wednesday but the timing of the bowler's Ashes preparations means he will arrive later, travelling with two fellow bowlers, fast bowlers who are also building towards the longer format in Australia but are not in the limited-overs team. Consequently Archer will miss the opening game at Bay Oval, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his only previous appearance, in 2019.